Month: August 2016

I know, I know. Do we really need another chili recipe? Yes! This is so delicious! Also, I promised earlier to post this recipe. I know it is summer, and chili is a winter food, but I thought I was short on grocery money this week and had to do some pantry meals, and chili is one of the best pantry meals. All of the ingredients can be stored in the pantry if you skip the ground beef (which I often do, much to L’s disappointment), making this a perfect zombie apocalypse recipe. Continue reading “Flexible Chili – You can’t cook it wrong {Recipe}”

Yesterday I started writing up today’s post. It was inspired by something that happened to me, and I wanted to discuss it. But it is a subject I have a very hard time giving a voice to. So hard of a time, in fact, that when it occurs in my life, I am momentarily paralyzed and left speechless. This makes it very hard to write a blog post about it, and even harder to stop it from happening in my life. Continue reading “Boundaries, rape culture, and gossip”

In last week’s Thankful Thursday post, I praised the internet and technology for enabling us to maintain relationships over great distances, both through travel planning and by providing easy communication. This week I want to praise the internet for bringing us other points of view so we can keep our own up to date. Continue reading “Diversity in friendships {Thankful Thursday}”

I’m going to try this recipe feature again. Hopefully it works right this time and only publishes once. I was asked to post a budget-stretching recipe today, so I decided to share my Chicken Cabbage Soup, which is based on Anytime Soup found in The Schwarzbein Principle. If I’m really honest, it is just a variant based on what I had and felt like putting in it. Continue reading “Chicken Cabbage Soup {Recipe}”

I love Thankful Thursdays. I enjoy the opportunity to get really deeply thankful and appreciative for something in my life. Today I am grateful for technology. In some ways I sympathize with the Luddites. I do believe we have become a bit disconnected from our real lives by becoming too absorbed in our virtual lives. But in other ways, I am hugely grateful for the vast array of wonderful technology just waiting to enhance our real lives. Continue reading “Travelling with Technology {Thankful Thursday}”

Gardening. It is one of those things that is expected as a given for anyone interested in nutrition or sustainability. I have to be honest, though. I suck at gardening. I never get the watering right. I either drown the poor things, or they die of dehydration. Sometimes they struggle between both states. It is feast or famine with the water. I don’t mean to. I just have not figured out a good system yet. One year I planted potatoes in a spot that turned out to be very shady, so the plants snaked across the yard to where the sun was and then grew vertically. I think that although I love the concept of gardening, I don’t like the actual gardening itself. Maybe it has been because I have always had less than optimal conditions for gardening. I live in the Granite State, and our prime crop is rock. I can’t dig a hole without wrestling rocks. And not just pebbles or small stones. Some of these rocks are football size or larger. Whatever the cause, gardening has been a less-than-fun experience for me. Continue reading “My Far-From-Perfect Garden”

Today I am out of my usual routine, so I thought I would share something that I wrote for a church service this past winter. I was asked to share my personal credo, my system of beliefs. Since my religion does not have one specific dogma, we sometimes have services in which a handful of us share our own beliefs. It is so fun to hear the ideas that govern each of our lives. So here today is n explanation of my own personal religious beliefs. I hope something here resonates with you.Continue reading “This I believe”

It is Thankful Thursday, and I am determined to mine some appreciation from the darkest of places. I want to be an example of the fact that no matter how horrible things get, there is always something to be grateful for. This post may be a little graphic, as I process my grief. Feel free to not read it. This one I am writing for me. Continue reading “Dealing with grief {Thankful Thursday}”